Archive for the Public Health Category

Vaccine Vacillation And Vicissitudes (December 14, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Health Care, Medicine, Public Health, Vaccine on December 14, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They make great promises of a vaccine with a ‘success rate’ of 97.312159 % or even, . . . why not, . . . go big and claim 104.312159 % or just make up a number.  Like the Dow, nothing is real today.”

J          “I’ll take it.  Maybe not right now.  It won’t be available to me until April.  We will have more information by then.  If they have enough available vials.  And that turns on whether they can access enough sand to make enough vials.”

. . .

J          “I admit there are some health care workers who are balking at getting the vaccine.  The corporate medical machine instinctively fires them immediately with no severance pay or word of thanks . . . until it realizes there are no ready replacements.  So they are agreeing to keep the disagreement quiet.”

K          “Then the next wave of victims are the most vulnerable who are also more likely nonetheless to suffer unfavorable outcomes.”

J          “Some argue that the most productive should be protected next.”

K          “They can have mine.”

. . .

K          “Why is no one focusing on taking care of the individual?  Why not advise citizens to take Vitamins C and D3 and also Zinc with a ionophore to drive the Zinc into a cell?  And a healthy diet and peaceful sleep?  Maybe shed a few pounds?  A baby aspirin a day to deal with what appears to be a blood condition? That is the solution.”

J          “America is not a preventive medicine kind of place.”

. . .  

K          “Despite efforts to suppress any bad news, word is leaking out to the public.  The MSM and the new age MSM Tech Monsters continue the full-court press to deceive the public but with less success each week.”

J          “I’ll take yours.” 

. . .

[See “95% Vaccine Efficacy? Not So Fast” in “The Automatic Earth” dated December 6, 2020 by Raul Illargi Meijer.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The self-inflicted Pearl Harbor of our time

We are transitioning from the nightmare of Trumpi to the nightmare of Biden.

2020:  The Year of the Virus; 2021:  The Year of the Vaccine 

Trumpi bungled the Virus; Biden is bungling the Vaccine

Trumpi:  RussiaRussiaRussia

Biden:  ChinaChinaChina

That’s the thing about the future, it is so predictable

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Taking Legal Stock (June 29, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Medicine, Privacy, Public Health on June 30, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “About the run on toilet paper . . . .”

. . .

K          “It is slithering closer.  The very close friend who lost a very close friend will soon be the very close friend who is lost.”

J          “Them or her or him or you or me.  Now or by NOVember.”

. . .

J          “Contract tracing is a diametric departure from and express rejection of the privacy concerns expressed in HIPAA and other legislation.  Now when someone tests positive, all the world is notified.”

K          “The government can justify just about anything domestically in the name of public health and safety.  And the government can justify just about anything internationally in the name of national defense and security.  I concede that I do not have a fundamental quarrel with announcing to the world that someone tests positive.”

. . .

J          “Now that the horses are out of the barn, the government is hiring bureaucrats to determine the names and addresses of the escaped equines.”

K          “The ad for contact tracers says the government is seeking ‘all the king’s horses and all the king’s men’ to interview the team of horses who have fled the barn.”

. . .

J          “And contact tracing has just about exceeded its usefulness when just about everyone you come into contact with has contracted it.  The response has always been two weeks behind.  The strategy should be to get two weeks ahead.  Contact tracing is now two months behind . . . and moot.”

K          “Contact tracing is now the cover to monitor the activities of every citizen.  Now that the Virus has nestled in every corner of the country, contact tracing needs to be curtailed.”

. . .

K          “The current bailout includes provisions exempting all the legislation and payments from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  We as a society made so much progress and now are on the retrograde.” 

J          “Our personal privacy rights are compromised by all the governments admittedly for reasons that are not implausible in this situation.  The public’s right to know is totally undermined in one stroke by Congress.  There is something retrogressive about all those decisions.”

. . .

K          “The Big X, the Tenth Amendment, is resurgent along with the Virus.  States are now almost co-equal players with the federal government in the political debate over the response to the Virus.”

J          “International agencies and the federal government have failed.  Some state governments have stepped in commendably.  Some state governments have failed.  Some city governments have stepped in commendably.  Some city governments have failed.  The checkerboard response is surreal and unreal.”

J          “Medicine is politics.  What happens when a red state governor does not adopt a mandatory masks policy and a blue city mayor adopts a mandatory masks policy?”

K          “In the city, the citizens wear a mask; in the rest of the state, they wear what they think is appropriate consistent with the ignorant directives of the governor.  But I can assure you that logic will not prevail particularly when you are dealing with American–trained judges.”

. . .

K          “And you know my firm conviction that there are many members of the medical establishment and in government committing crimes against humanity.”

J          “You may be right.  I am still researching.  But no one in power in America will ever be convicted of a crime.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

Great Meteor 2020  Just End It Already

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Taking Stock (June 22, 2020)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Blue States / Red States, Book Reference, Covid / Coronavirus, Freedom / Liberty, Law, Medicine, Privacy, Public Health, Wall Street, War and Wall Street Party on June 22, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Taking stock of the stock market is the stock in trade of the Federal Reserve.  The only certainty throughout this Plague is the Federal Reserve doing everything possible to protect and serve Wall Street.”

J          “Those on every street in and out of uniform who are obliged to protect and serve have protected and served the interests of Wall Street not Main Street.”

. . .

K          “It has been a tough few weeks to be a statue.”

J          “Some had to be moved.  But in their uncontrolled and unfocused rage, they may topple a statue of Lincoln without knowing who he was or what he did, albeit with alloyed motives.”

. . .

K          “This is also a tough time to be a state in the Union.  The federal government can print money at will in unlimited amounts forever until the rest of the world unseats the United States as the purveyor of the world’s reserve currency.  The towns, cities, counties, boroughs, water authorities and other political subdivisions can always file bankruptcy.  But the states are stuck because they cannot print money and cannot deficit spend and cannot file bankruptcy.”

J          “And cannot pay their bills.  The federal government has an out, the other governments have an out and the state governments are left out.  It will soon manifest and not be pretty.” 

. . .

J          “My initial fear was that it appeared to be some variety of the Hantavirus which is far more virulent and infectious than Covid-19.”

K          “My continuing fear is that it is becoming more virulent and infectious.”

. . .

K          “I do not know what to make of “Event 201” in October 2019 with the powerful players playing war games and discussing the outbreak of a Coronavirus at the very same time that the Coronavirus was breaking out.”

J          “The exercise let everyone know that they had more than a clue that the Plague was coming, but they were absolutely clueless about what to do about it as it came.”

. . .

K          “The proper use of masks was obvious.  I joined the cover up immediately and was the first Occidental in my Costco to wear a mask way back in early February.”

J          “Make masks great again.  We have always known that fact despite what those in power said and misled.  However, based on recent findings, the concern with spreading by contact with paper, door handles and the like is still a concern but a less urgent one.”

. . .

J          “Faux libertarians say their right to swing their fists only ends an inch from my nose.  However, their swing is still a battery against me and my nose.  And their refusal to wear a mask and cover their nose and mouth hits me right in my nose and mouth.”

K          “They say it is the hit to the kisser that can be the kiss of death.”

. . .

K          “We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.  When do we enter the next stage?”

J          “That is what I fear.  That is what I don’t know.  I’ll simply go on record as prognosticating ‘Winter’ at this time.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “On Freedom and Liberty (May 24, 2010)” and “Who Is Your Big Bad Bogeyman? (March 26, 2007)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.  And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.  History has stopped.  Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”  George Orwell, 1984  Orwell’s “Party” = War and Wall Street Party?

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Now What?!  Make Masks Great Again (June 15, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Kleptocracy, Public Health, Schooling on June 15, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Too many of the protests degenerated into riots.  Who provided the bricks?  Provocateurs provoking tensions for their own agenda?  Protestors with a nefarious plan unconnected with engendering racial harmony?”

J          “A single brick too often is used to destroy a collection of bricks that serve the collective.  Once a brick goes through a window, the building is usually broken.”

. . .

K          “In 2008, it was illiquidity, so they added liquidity.  Now it is insolvency, so they add . . . liquidity.  A flood has overwhelmed the town, so the FRFD comes to the rescue and turns all the water hoses on the town.”

J          “The Federal Reserve Fire Department is contributing to the flood while filling the swimming pools of the Kleptocrats and providing them with the money to build bigger pools.  They are all wet.  It will not end well.” 

. . .

K          “Futball players are returning to the grid iron and may need to rethink the ‘full contact, two a day, with pads’ regimen and instead institute ‘six feet apart, one a day, with masks’ to keep the kids alive.”

J          “Once the kids are there, it is their problem.  It could be a doozy.”

. . .

K          “Those in power are terrified that hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with azithromycin and zinc is an effective prophylactic and a treatment, so it is banned.  The grand obscene irony is the world will know in less than a year.  Those who want to know now, now know.  A crime against humanity, possibly?”

J          “The real crime is the refusal to undertake a valid scientific test.  To date, the tests by my colleagues have been premeditated frauds.  At this time, I reserve final judgment.”

. . .

J          “You shouldn’t get your medical advice from television ads . . . or the NYT.”

K          “And any advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the American Medical Association (AMA), President Trumpi, the Surgeon General, Anthony Fauci, the Main Stream Media (MSM), Corporate News Network (CNN), Faux News (Fox), Big Pharma (BG), etc. also should be consumed cum grano salis and perhaps not BID.”

. . .

[See “Coronavirus To Decimate Colleges and Universities” by Yves Smith in “Naked Capitalism” dated May 12, 2020.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

The relaxation of isolation rules does not mean the Plague is over.  It means they currently have a bunk for you in the ICU.   

Wearing a mask outside makes about as much sense to me as wearing rubbers in the rain. 

Covid-19(84)

You shouldn’t get your medical advice from television ads . . . or the NYT.

Wash; mask; space

“The current mitigation measures, such as social distancing, quarantine, and isolation implemented in the United States, are insufficient by themselves in protecting the public.  Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the trends of the pandemic worldwide.  We conclude that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent interhuman transmission, and this inexpensive practice, in conjunction with extensive testing, quarantine, and contact tracking, poses the most probable fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to the development of a vaccine.”

Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America by multiple authors dated June 10, 2020.

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  In Memoriam (May 25, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on May 25, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

To the health care workers.

. . .

[See “In Memoriam” in “Straight Line Logic” dated May 24, 2020 by Robert Gore and “25 YEARS OF CN:  Memorial Day—‘Tragic Valor of Marines at Con Thien’—May 29, 2016” in “Consortium News” dated May 25, 2020 by Dan North.]

[See the e-commentary at “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War.  A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Hug a health care worker.  From thirty feet.

I [heart] health care workers

Wear a mask; save a health care worker

Provide health care workers with health insurance and paid sick leave

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  The Personal Lockdown Calculus (May 11, 2020)

Posted in Academia, Covid / Coronavirus, Health Care, Public Health, Universities on May 11, 2020 by e-commentary.org

[Google continues to block access to https://e-commentary.org/ with no justification or recourse.]

. . .

K          “We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.”

J          “That is what I fear.”

. . .

K          “A very close friend lost a very close friend in late February, but not a very close friend of mine.  And then another very close friend lost a very close friend in March, but not a very close friend of mine.  And then another very close friend lost a very close friend in April, but not a very close friend of mine.  But I have not or have not to date lost a very close friend or a close friend or a friend.  In time.”

J          “‘Have not to date’ is true.  It is still distant and foreign and academic and theoretical.  New York is far away and distant and foreign for most people.  Someone must first lose a neighbor, then a second cousin, then a nephew, and then a parent, spouse, child.  Then it gets real.  Then there may be some passing collective interest in wearing a mask properly.”

. . .

J          “If we want to reduce traffic injuries and death, we could outlaw left turns.”

K          “Or cap the speed limit at 25 mph.  Everything in life is a trade-off.  I get it.”

. . . 

J          “So many of the individuals who support the lockdown can afford to be locked down and benefit from others being locked down.  And so many of the individuals who oppose the lockdown cannot afford to be locked down and believe that they do not benefit from others being locked down.”

K          “The dispute is not just another ‘blue state’ versus ‘red state’ divide but rather is a ‘green state’ divide in the populace.  The ‘green state’ divide is real.”

. . .

J          “This ‘Covid Conversation’ stuff even with video denies us the chance to observe and gauge the speaking and revealing we do with our body.  And to sense the pheromones.”

K          “A fortnight ago, I observed that I feel for the first time in my life like a reluctant prisoner in my own private fort with no defined sentence or clear terms of parole.”

. . .

K          “Do you open the universities this Fall?  The decision needs to be made now.  No, the universities cannot open this Fall.  Opening a university creates more problems of all kinds and also would lead to financial ruin via a different path.  When kids from all over descend on shared bed rooms and communal bathrooms, all viral hell breaks out.  The entire fragile and unsustainable economic model for today’s University, Inc. is built on the foreign students in particular all the Chinese students paying full freight.  There will be bloodbaths of red ink.”

J          “I know of many hospitals low on or out of cash.  The hospitals affiliated with state universities are not receiving enough funds from the state legislatures that are not receiving enough tax dollars from the citizens to fund the operations because the citizens are not able to work.  What is also bewildering is that individuals are not presenting with the medical problems that one would expect based on accurate historical records.  There will be bankruptcies.”

. . .

J          “I maintain that you will get it NOW or you will get it in NOV.  Wear a mask properly.  Work to delay it for you and for others and for the system as long as possible.  There may be more resources and should be refined protocols in NOVember than NOW.  Unless the system is overwhelmed and/or the Virus is more virulent.”

K          “I have spent the last few months doing for others even when they didn’t want to do for themselves or did not know what to do.  I am doing right now what I would do when it is too late to do something.  The drum beat is getting louder and the march is getting closer.”

J          “NOVember is just around the corner.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary on the Plague over the last few months.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Things are worse than they seem

“In a very toxic world, a healthcare system that can’t or won’t talk about detoxification, nutrition, and vitamin deficiencies/supplements, but only likely more toxic pharmaceuticals and possibly toxic vaccines (flu vaccines that still have mercury in them, for instance) is a healthcare system that no one needs.”  Attributed to _______________?

When can you tell that a government virologist is lying?  When he/she is moving his/her lips.

Dad attended Brown; Mom attended Smith; I onlined Dartmouth

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War.  A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Covid / Coronavirus, Kleptocracy, Medicine, Public Health on April 27, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.”

J          “That is what I fear.”

. . .

K          “First responders and healthcare workers are taking over from the military as the new heroes in America.”

J          “In the near future, the RNs and the MDs and the EMTs will be allowed to board planes before others board.  Although we will not be boarding as often.”

. . .

K          “They will board the planes that you and I personally bailed out after the owners looted and plundered the companies and bailed on ordinary Americans.”

J          “The Kleptocracy never sleeps.  The Kleptocracy is far more virulent and a much greater threat than the Virus.  I suffer from ongoing Traumatic Stress Disorder (TSD) and carom between being outraged and being enraged at another carefully planned economic coup d’état.  They are already organizing and planning the 2030 economic coup d’état.”

. . .

J          “In this War on the Plague, the RNs and the MDs and the EMTs are suffering and will suffer the same PTSD that the PFCs and the CPOs and the NCOs suffer.”

K          “In most shooting wars, there are a few minutes of intense activity followed by hours or days or weeks of boredom.  For the First responders and healthcare workers there were and are hours and days and weeks of intense and unrelenting activity followed by a few moments of sleepless respite and restless rest.  They too are now suffering the TSD you talk about in real time.”

J          “The source and nature of the PTSD is quite different.  When most members of the military later have an opportunity to reflect on the designated enemy, they realize and acknowledge that they had no quarrel with the designated enemy.  They were killing innocent kids on behalf of nefarious corporations.  That realization creates even more confusion, frustration, outrage, anger and often self-destructive behavior.  However, there is nothing benign about a Virus that is not burdened with a conscience and does what it is designed to do . . . to maim and kill you.  This Enemy is the acknowledged Enemy of humanity.”

K          “Both groups also have one experience in common.  The ordinary grunts in the military were lied to and betrayed by those in political power and directly by the REMFs.  The RNs and the MDs and the EMTs in the Plague War were and are lied to and betrayed by those in power such as the CDC, the WHO, the MSM, the Surgeon General and so many others in power.  The ‘Plague of Lies’ still plagues us in the ‘War on the Plague’ that will haunt us for years.”

J          “For many health care professionals, the PTSD in large part is regret which is so corrosive and destructive.  In the past, I have interrogated myself many times wondering if I could have done more.  They are also realizing that the treatment protocols they did not establish but implemented in the best of faith were at times wrong, incomplete or inadequate.”

. . .

J          “In the larger population, everyone must deal with ravaged and devastated psyches.  A woman who disregarded my advice in early February to buy and use one mask today and save 500 masks tomorrow resorted to and repeated the government lie.  She flashed on contemporary ‘virtue signaling’ and proclaimed that the masks do not work and should be given to health care workers.  No, wear one.  However, if she is self-aware and if the thought ever dawns on her that she is using a lie to lie to herself and to lie to others, the psychological damage is compounded.”

K          “Someone in February said the idea that this flu is anything more than the sniffles is a ‘stupid’ fool.  He will find fifty different ways to rationalize his position until the day he departs the planet.”

. . .   

J          “There are at least three truths that are debilitating if not devastating.  I must talk myself to sleep.  First, there has never been a vaccine for any coronavirus including for the common cold despite tremendous efforts to find one.  Second, the world record for finding a vaccine is four years for measles after a concerted effort by dedicated and hard-working scientists toiling day and night to find a vaccine.  Third, the Plague seems to be mutating regularly which makes it a moving target to hit.  Oh, and fourth, add the emerging concern that any natural immunity may only be temporary which is related to three.”

K          “Fifth, and never forget that man had a hand in creating the Virus and designed it to elude a vaccine.  If we are not honest about its origin, we will never find a solution.  Sixth, any vaccine is likely to have more side effects than a natural or existing remedy.  And seventh, never forget that Big Pharma is concerned first with profit and will create a vaccine only if there is a profit and will attack any possible remedy that it does not control and market.” 

J          “There is all that.  These thoughts whirring around keep me from sleeping and then when I do nod off they awake me.”

. . .

K          “We disagree about what I facetiously describe as the ‘Trumpi Trifecta’ that may work if given at the right time in the right proportions to the right individuals who have been screened for some concerns.”

J          “In the land of the red, white and blue, we now have ‘red state medicine’ and ‘blue state medicine’ to guide us.  States have been described as laboratories of policy and are now petri dishes of competing protocols.”

K          “As a nation, we will obtain results from South Dakota and Utah and other states and countries.  We must decide which is the ‘red pill’ and which is the ‘blue pill’ in a world where just about everyone is lying to us about what is going on and which pill we should pop.  Taking the wrong pill has consequences.  Those who prescribe the wrong pill will be able to confabulate enough rationalizations to stumble through their lives.”

J          “We do agree that each of us should take ionophores that are available in green tea and yellow onions and other sources and then allow zinc with an appropriate copper chaser to flood the cells.”

K          “Go natural.  I am convinced that plant-based general pathogen destroyers and existing remedies will be the only viable treatments and solutions.”

. . .

K          “The country needs to keep its minds occupied and its hands busy.  The country needs to establish a new version of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  The kids cannot safely go back to colleges and universities this Fall.  This is the break and the opportunity for the kids to take a break in the assembly line of life and undertake productive social work on the nation’s infrastructure for a livable wage.  The older participants can provide experience and perspective.” 

J          “Almost everyone wants a hand but not a hand out.  Many folks may state that they hate their job, but they want to have a job to hate.  I cannot imagine a more important government program at this time.”

. . .

[See “First the People” in “Epsilon Theory” dated March 23, 2020 by Rusty Guinn.]

[See the e-commentary almost fourteen years ago at “The Residue of Unrelenting Fear:  PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006)” and “Civil War II.  Coming To A Country Near You (November 26, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“In war, truth is the first casualty.” attributed to Greek writer/poet Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC)

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop

Create the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)

Plant a garden

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Basically, Back To Basics:  Finding Food; Printing Rutabagas.  Happy Earth Day! (April 20, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on April 20, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “You can print money, but you cannot print rutabagas.”

K          “They are not able to print rutabagas.  Even the Makers cannot make rutabagas.”

. . .

K          “Seen clear-headedly and unromantically, the prospect is daunting and overwhelming.  Raising about 1 percent of what I consumed last year is not going to do it.  That will not do it.  Not a chance.”

J          “The challenge is depressing and debilitating.  About 3 percent is not near enough.  That may be 11 days.  Assume for discussion’s sake that you need 2000 calories a day.  Where do you find 730,000 calories a year?  For a family of four, that is 2,920,000 calories a year.  And then do the math for about 8 billion hungry souls.  It is smaller than the National Debt, but it is substantial.  Without corporate farming, we are doomed except for small groups of individuals.”

. . .

K          “Future wars will be fought over water, that we know.  There will soon be many wars and battles and skirmishes and fights over water’s companion at the table of life.”

J          “You can see right now that there will be millions and millions of small and big fights.  I woke up last night and could not sleep until I gave up and got up and left for work . . . in the next room.  I realize that I cannot defend my house against more than perhaps one wave.  As we speak, I am not able presently to fulfill my first duties to my family.  Neither security nor food security.  There will be churlishness.”

. . .

K          “Physical life is about heat creation, retention and transfer.  I must obtain enough calories to heat the inside of the body and enough B.T.U.s to heat the shell outside of the body to sustain me, my family and my community.  The shell is double layered with clothing and housing retaining heat.”

J          “2,000 calories a day, every day, day in and day out.  Along those lines, after a short discussion, everyone agreed that their last liter will be fed to the chain saw.  Cutting firewood with technology saves human calories – the inside heat – and creates the most efficient B.T.U.s. to heat the shell – the outside heat.  And when the last liter is gone, we take a two hundred year leap into the past and partake of the bow saw.  Then we will consume much more inside heat to produce stored outside heat sticks.  And keep your left elbow straight when you golf and when you operate a chain saw.”

K          “And wear hearing protection and chain saw safety chaps.”

. . .

K          “From the absurdity of amassing toilet paper . . . full circle . . . to the desperate search for heat in all its forms.”

J          “Back to the beginning.  Back to basics.  Back to keeping the organism alive.  And add 2000 calories for Leap Year.”

. . .

J          “Gardening requires a total commitment of mind, soul and body.  The Garden is like one of the elements on the periodic table, it is ‘Gaia’ or just the good old letter ‘G’ will suffice.  But I am not there.”

K          “If your lot in life is to tend a garden, it is a lot of work to nurture your little lot.”

. . .

J          “Look at the collapsing price of oil today.  Food is largely reconstituted oil and gas.  Oil is free and food will soon be priceless.”

K          “Just this afternoon, they are paying others to take and store oil.  The irony and absurdity is that a barrel of oil could be $100 in a year when all the supply chains and infrastructure that goes into drilling, transporting and refining oil seizes up.”

. . .

J          “The slaughterhouses may not recover and reopen.  If they do, the public may not participate.  Or there may be such desperation that the populace will partake of the product and eat poisoned protein.  The reality may be that the inefficient system of providing protein may be supplanted by plants and cereals that are far better for us and for the Planet.”

K          “I see it coming.  Whatever happens, I plan to follow Michael Pollan’s suggestion that one should not eat any cereal that discolors one’s milk.” 

. . .

K          “So many commentators who do not have trouble babbling away do have trouble with the ideas of inflation and of deflation.  In the near future, the price of ‘bubble baubles / faux assets’ such as ETFs and theme parks will deflate/drop in price because they have little worth and will drop in real value.  At the same time, the price of ‘real assets’ such as grub and farm land will inflate/rise in price because they have much worth and will rise in real value.”

J          “So many answers are so easy.  A recession occurs when your neighbor loses his job; a depression occurs when you lose your job.  Ask someone if he or she has lost his or her job.  Have you?”

. . .

K          “Oscar Wilde said:  ‘A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing’.  I know the price of just about everything and the value of just about everything.”  

J          “That’s valuable to know.  Soon everything of value will be valued in sweat not in dollars.”

. . .

K          “The ‘Great Disconnect’ between the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’ and the ‘real price’ for ‘physical precious metals’ as assessed and posted by SD Bullion continues to be revealing.  The ‘real price’ for Au (Gold) has increased almost weekly from $130 to $140 to $155 to $175 to $180 an ounce over the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’.  The ‘real price’ for Ag (Silver) has increased almost weekly from $.19 to $10 and then dropped to $7 an ounce recently over the ‘spot price’ for ‘paper precious metals’.  The current real ratio between Au and Ag is 83 to 1.  A real market is emerging for precious metals in a country with no real free markets.”

J          “You need to find a forum to post these figures.  They are a harbinger of the loss of control over critical fraudulent prices and more specifically a signal of the coming global currency reset.  In the past, the government has addressed ‘illiquidity’ by printing money.  The government and the economy is ‘insolvent’ today, economically and morally, and cannot be rescued by printing more money.  But they will print.”

. . .

J          “2,000 calories a day, every day, day in and day out.  You can print money, but you cannot print rutabagas.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary on the insolvent criminal enterprise known as the USA at “America the Bankrupt: Economics 210 in the Land of the Freeway and the Home of the Wave (January 17, 2005)”, the coming and not at all paradoxical 1) deflation/drop in the price of “bubble baubles / faux assets” (i.e. ETFs and theme parks) and 2) inflation/rise in the price of “real assets” (i.e. grub and farm land) in “Stagflation?!?  Hands Down Or Hands Up? (January 14, 2019)”, “They Can Print Money (November 2, 2015)”, the concern over water supplies in “Drought (May 25, 2009)” and “Money ‘In The Bank’ Or ‘Under The Mattress’ (October 8, 2012)” and hundreds of other e-commentaries on the economy and society over the last 15 years.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

We need to normalize the new normal, but first we need to create a better new normal

You can print money, but you cannot print rutabagas

Plant a garden?

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  An Exclusive Interview With . . . Mr. COVID-19.  Save The United States Postal Service (April 13, 2020)

Posted in China, Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on April 13, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Interviewer:             “Good morning, listeners.  We have the distinct pleasure of presenting for his first public speaking appearance an exclusive interview with . . . Mr. COVID-19 . . . who has been in the news recently.  Mr. COVID-19, welcome to the Banal Banterings radio hour.”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Totally.”

Interviewer:            “A few questions about your background.  Where were you born?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Tubularly.”

Interviewer:            “Okay, let me back up.  Oriental or Occidental?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Worldly.”

Interviewer:            “A natural origin, we presume?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Humanly.”

Interviewer:            “When did you begin your world tour?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Recently.”

Interviewer:            “How did you begin your world tour?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Problematically.”

Interviewer:            “Was your world tour planned?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Inevitably.”

Interviewer:            “How do you move so quickly?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Swiftly.”

Interviewer:            “Are you as novel and virulent as they conjecture?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Clearly.”

Interviewer:            “Do you attack the lungs or as some surmise the blood’s capacity to deliver oxygen?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Virulently.”

Interviewer:            “Hydroxychloroquine treats malaria which is caused by a parasite not by one of your compatriot viruses.  However, might a round of hydroxychloroquine dissuade you?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Arguably.”

Interviewer:            “Azithromycin may kill bacteria, but I don’t need to remind you that you are indeed a virus.  However, might a course of Z-Pak discourage you?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Possibly.”

Interviewer:            “Are humans able to develop immunity?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Potentially.”

Interviewer:            “Is there lifetime immunity?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Intermittently.”

Interviewer:            “How long are you staying around?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Indefinitely.”

Interviewer:            “Will they come up with a safe and effective vaccine in the next year?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Unlikely.”

Interviewer:            “Are you unconcerned and indifferent to the plight and welfare of those you impact and the lives you destroy?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Utterly.”

. . .

Interviewer:            “Do you believe the United States Postal Service should be saved and bailed out if necessary?”

Mr. COVID-19:        “Unhesitatingly.  . . .  What is it with you people?  We understand that you have the dormant ability to think.  You are far more destructive to each other than we will ever be.  You people are a much greater on-going Plague on this Planet than we will ever be.”

Interviewer:             “Thank you Mr. COVID-19 for your lively and informative interview this morning.  Next week on Banal Banterings, we are tentatively scheduled to hear from . . . the lovely and talented Ms. COVID-19.”

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .    

J          “To date, the actions and inactions of almost everyone on the public payroll have been criminal and treasonous.  However, the decision by the politicians not to bail out the United States Postal Service is a new strain of stupidity and folly.  People need to be able to ship and receive products throughout the life of the Plague and afterwards.  Many of the recipients and beneficiaries are in rural and small towns in Red States.”

K          “Every other supply chain is braking and breaking.  The most important supply chain is being allowed to snap and fail intentionally and with malice aforethought.  As a people, we are obscenely deficient.”  

. . .

J          “Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, did sound a warning in late January that caught my attention and does deserve a nod.”

. . .

J          “The Plague will provide many numbers for debate and discussion.  The numbers of deaths per citizen in the Red States that refused to implement stay-at-home orders versus other figures for Blue and Purple States will be revealing.  Who know it the numbers of deaths in Red States may or may not be fewer if the citizens are willing and able to access and use the Red State Trumpi Trifecta (hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with azithromycin and zinc).”

K          “Sports are statistics in uniforms.  With sports events now cancelled, these statistics may provide fodder to entertain and distract the people.  Betting lines could be established.  Will there be a vaccine within a year?  Two years?  Will we hit X deaths by Y date?  Is 6 feet or 31 feet the appropriate social distance?  Are 14 days or 21 days of quarantine the appropriate time?  Who on the public payroll should receive the least valuable player (LVP) award?”

. . .

K          “Save the Postal Service.”

J          “And make more portable oxygen concentrators rather than ventilators.”

. . .

J          “Everyone agrees that we are in a war.  As Clausewitz observed, the Olympics are war carried on by other means.  Every four years, nations come together and joust with other nations on the playing field rather than on the battle field.  However, some of the compelling human dramas make some of the events worth watching.  At this time, the traditional Olympics in Japan finally have been postponed, but the competition continues.  Now countries are playing games with their COVID-19 numbers to score points in the new on-going ‘2020 COVID-19 Olympics’ played out across the world.”

K          “Who has a better health care system?  Who has a better PPE inventory?  Who is better at contact tracing?  Who is better at testing?  Who is better?”

. . .

J          “Save the Postal Service.”

K          “And make more portable oxygen concentrators rather than ventilators.”

. . .

K          “The alleged choice between maintaining public health and maintaining the economy is another chimera and another shimmering lie.  The fractured and fissured financial system fractured and fissured.  There was never an option to maintain the business as usual (BAU) economy.  There was an option to allow the economy to sputter for a few weeks, but not to continue the economy for a few months.”

J          “If the suppliers are dead and the truckers are dead and the store owners are dead and the shoppers are dead, the economy is not alive.  I am not only saving the articles of the meat heads contending to the contrary to a file, I am printing them because they will disappear from the Internet when their false prophesies prove wrong.” 

K          “The Kleptocrats have preserved and perpetuated the worst aspects of the failed but now resurrected financial system.  The economy as we know it must be ‘restarted,’ but it cannot be restarted.  Not without some subtlety and finesse.”

J          “You have no chance of restarting the economy without first saving the Postal Service.  Period.  End of discussion.”

. . .

[See “‘No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito’ – What The Expanse tells us about the COVID-19 pandemic and serial passage gain-of-function research” in “Harvard to the Big House” dated March 23, 2020, “Logistical and Technical Exploration into the Origins of the Wuhan Strain of Coronavirus (COVID-19)” in “Harvard to the Big House” dated January 31, 2020 and “China owns Nature magazine’s ass – Debunking ‘The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2’ claiming COVID-19 definitely wasn’t from a lab” in “Harvard to the Big House” dated March 19, 2020.]

[See the e-commentary at “V, W, U, S or . . . L: The Shape of Things to Come (November 16, 2009)”, “Greed on Steroids (October 22, 2007)”, “Kleptocracy, Inc.: Rebranding America (November 18, 2013)”, and two e-commentaries on the bailout written a dozen years ago at “A Bleak Day: The Trillion Dollar Tragedy (October 6, 2008)” and “Futile Efforts (September 29, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Not dual-use gain-of-function research again?!?!

Save the Postal Service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If oil goes any lower, Exxon Mobil might have to layoff some members of Congress

Pardon and free Assange Yesterday

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  The Plague Of Lies Is Pandemic;  Everyone In The Know Knows;  Does Trumpi Know Something? (April 6, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on April 6, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Just imagine if he had called a press conference on Valentine’s Day and worn a mask.  And told the truth to the American people.  A heart-breaking message on a day of otherwise heart-warming messages.  The world is in for the fight of its life.  The image would have become as iconic as George Washington crossing the Delaware or the first man landing on the Moon.  The picture would have appeared on the late December 2020 ‘Time’ magazine ‘Person Of The Year’ cover and would have redeemed and exonerated so many of his sins.  He would have won every state and the District of Columbia.  And we would not be in this nightmare.”

. . .

K          “He is incapable of greatness.  He is incapable of goodness.  He is incapable.  But he may be capable in a crazy, twisted and bizarre way.  You cannot come up with a solution unless you understand the problem.  Everything is still sketchy and uncertain and ever-changing, yet Covid-19 could be a blood disorder rather than a respiratory disease.  The problem with Covid-19 may be not that the lungs are unable to deliver the oxygen to the body, but that the blood is not able to deliver the oxygen to the body.  If you start with the assumption that it is a blood disorder that destroys the blood’s ability to transport oxygen, you should expect to and do see all the debilitating respiratory symptoms that we are seeing in the hospitals.  Treat upstream.  And that brings me to the question whether Trumpi’s proposed solution has some modicum of merit in some cases?”

J          “You do not understand the problem.  A virus does not interfere with a red blood cell.  Stay with reality-based medicine.  They and you are way off base.  And Trumpi is absolutely clueless.”

K          “What if this Virus does interfere with the cell?  And what if one possible remedy works but does not make sense?  Use it now and then let the wonks later make sense of it.”

. . .

K          “Some analogize to the effects one suffers with ‘High Altitude Pulmonary Edema’ [HAPE], yet that name is not going to sell in most of America.  I suggest something like ‘Sea Level Pulmonary Edema’ [SLePE] to make it local and palatable.”

J          “I’ll play along.  How about ‘Mile High Pulmonary Edema’ [MHiPE] in Denver.” 

. . .

K          “Most Americans who do not work for a corporation/institution, public or private, do not have health care and must self-diagnose and self-treat.  This is life in the fourth-world corporation known as the American Kleptocracy.  An American hospital is an institution commandeered by a hedge fund to squeeze a profit at the expense of the health and welfare of the American public.”

. . .

K          “At this time, it may be an incomplete and inadequate solution, but in a small dose it may be effective and is not as unsafe as some suggest.  I also must be my own FDA and my own MD.  That is why I need a thermometer and a pulse oximeter and the knowledge to use them.  We are on our own; I am on my own.”

J          “The regimen is desperate and possibly dangerous and deadly.”

K          “It may be.  I am concerned that the current approach followed by the medical establishment violates the Hippocratic Oath.  It may be doing more harm.  Based on the limited and incomplete information I have reviewed today and subject to revision tomorrow, if my current blood saturation level goes from 100/99 to something under 88 and if my current temperature goes from a morning average temporal base line of 97.3 to something over 103 and if my current resting pulse goes from 49 to 99 and if a few more things on a chart I trust are present or suspect, I am going to give serious thought to giving the Trumpi Trifecta (hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with azithromycin and zinc) a go.”

J          “This is the time when the word ‘stupid’ is felicitous and appropriate.  That approach is AMA and not the recommendation of the AMA.”

K          “I used chloroquine when I traveled in Asia with no harmful side effects.  Why does the Plague impact both lungs on every patient rather than just one lung on at least a few patients?  In the past, some pneumonia impacts only one lung.  The threat appears to be external to and then impacts both lungs.”

J          “It is virulent and aggressive.  You should expect it to spread to both lungs in every situation.”

K          “Is it really pneumonia in each case or a failure of the blood to transport oxygen that is manifested in a gasping and grasping for air that leads the observer to believe it is pneumonia?”

. . .

K          “If there is a possible cure with an available remedy, Big Pharma will oppose its use by the public.  The MSM will parrot the propaganda of Big Pharma and spend the advertising dollars to buy villas and give themselves awards.  Dr. Fauci has contributed, but he is a card-carrying member of the CIM, the Corporate Industrial Medicine.  He needs billion dollar budgets and an expensive vaccine with more side effects than the Trumpi Trifecta.  And ‘Time’ magazine has already printed the magazine with him on the cover as the ‘Person of the Year’ for 2020 with Big Pharma providing all the advertisements.”

J          “All true.  And the Kennedy Profiles in Cowardice Award may fast track him for the award in the next few weeks or at least by next year.  Big Pharma and the MSM and the CIM are all working together.  All vaccines must be shown to be safe, and also efficacious, and also profitable.  Despite the failure of all institutions, that does not excuse or justify an individual using something that is statistically unproven.”        

K          “In my situation, I must gamble that I am one of the positive anecdotes or risk being a negative statistic.  I have enough money to go to the morgue but not enough to go to the hospital.  And now I am convinced that the hospital is the second-to-the-last place I want go.  Once I got it and developed my own game plan, I felt better for myself but far worse for others who do not get it.” 

. . .

K          “By late January, everyone in the know knew that the Plague was coming.”

J          “I know for certain that I for one am not in the know and I know that I knew something troubling and worth our attention was coming via express mail in overdrive by early February.  I think it was Bill at the funeral on MLK Day, a Monday, who observed that it cannot be disregarded but may just turn out to be another seasonal flu.”

K          “Week 11.  I recognize in conversations with others that we are at a different intellectual and emotional place than the rest of the public.  And even the two of us are now at different places in our response.”

. . .

K          “Everyone in the know knew that there were not enough of the coveted and legendary and celebrated 3M N95 valved masks to go around, but everyone knew that everyone had to go around wearing a mask.”

J          “Without a doubt.  I told others that if they wear and remove and store and reuse just one mask properly, that one mask saves 500 masks downstream.  And if done by everyone, a few masks save thousands of lives downstream.  The Surgeon General lied about the use and efficacy of masks.”

. . .

J          “The ‘Plague of Lies’ may be the accurate and enduring description of the institutional responses from the WHO to the CDC to the Surgeon General to the White House to the MSM to the CIM and to many members of the SIC.”

K          “The grand irony is that the truth is proven to be true within weeks so that even your average ruthless amoral cunning and calculating psychopathic and sociopathic American leader should have embraced the truth as the winning bet a few weeks earlier.”

J          “When the truth becomes clear, yesterday’s lies are simply expunged from the record and new lies inserted by the President and the MSM and others.”

. . .

J          “While the good people desperately sought solutions, the Kleptocrats conspired with Congress to loot and plunder Trillions from the public.”

K          “This is a war on the Plague.  Everyone involved in the theft engaged in economic crimes against humanity and treasonous behavior.”

J          “And not one criminal will spend a day in jail.”

. . . 

K          “The country should be producing many more personal oxygen concentrators that are cheaper and quicker to manufacture than a ventilator and can then be used at home in an environment that may be more germ-free and thereby relieve the demand on hospital resources.”

J          “Ventilators seem to be coffins once removed.”

. . .

J          “The lies continue.  Now they do not want the public to use a pulse oximeter.  The argument is not that there are not enough of them.  The argument is not that the public does not know how to use them.  The argument is that the public does not need to know.  Hospitals already have a pulse oximeter wired into each monitor.”

K          “I need to know because I am my own and my only doctor.  Next they will target thermometers.  The novel coronavirus will spawn the novel ‘Fahrenheit Zero’ to describe the irrational and dishonest response of the big players.”

J          “Another day, another lie.”

. . .

K          “But Donaldo Trumpi may be on to something.  For the first time in recent history, God and Nature are working together to present us with a challenge.  Let’s do something novel and get it right.”

. . .

[See “People’s Skepticism About Covid-19 Is The Fault Of The Lying Mass Media” in “CaitlinJohnstone.com” dated March 31, 2020 by the award-winning investigative journalist and commentator Caitlin Johnstone.]

[See the e-commentary at “The Power Of Small Thinking (March 12, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Having some states lock down and some states not lock down is like having a non-peeing and a peeing section in a swimming pool.

People keep asking me, ‘Is Covid-19 REALLY that serious?’  Listen y’all, the churches and casinos are closed.  When Heaven and Hell agree on the same thing, it’s probably pretty serious.

You do need a pulse oximeter to know what your sat [blood oxygen percentage] is.

The government focus should on locating, inventorying, refurbishing and building portable oxygen concentrators rather than ventilators.

As of today, Covid-19 appears to be a blood disorder rather than a respiratory disease.  The problem with Covid-19 may not be that the lungs are unable to deliver the oxygen to the body; the problem may be that the blood is not able to deliver the oxygen to the body.

2 + 2 = 4; 2 + 2 + 2 = 6; 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8.

Plant a garden 

Puppy:  “Mom, why are humans wearing muzzles?”

Mom:    “Honey, they are just too dumb to learn to ‘sit’ and ‘stay’.”

A dyslexic poet writes inverse